Evolution

Since I've already written about revolution, I figured "heck it's rhyme time," so we're gonna work it evolution style...then maybe down the road we'll throw in a little devolution or possibly pollution. That wasn't really funny, but I'm tired and trying to think critically, which naturally leads to rhyming. Alright, procrastination over. Today was I sitting in Tibetan class and TJ (our most excellent Tibetan buddy/teacher) was talking about the elections for the Tibetan government's next prime minister. He talked about the favored candidate, who happens to be a young upstart with ideas about sweeping changes. In his analysis of the situation cute little TJ said something that catch my attention real quick. Speaking about his uneasiness with large changes in the Tibetan government, TJ said, "our culture is our heritage". What an interesting statement, I thought. 

I wanted to wrap my head around his statement so I googled culture and heritage. Heritage is defined as "practices that are handed down from the past by tradition" and culture was defined as "the attitudes and behavior that are characteristic of a particular social group or organization". In this context, I feel like he was saying that the way we behave is something that has been given to us from past generations. Maybe he believed sudden, or sweeping, changes would cause Tibetan’s to lose a piece of their culture and heritage.  What happens then when there is an evolution of culture? According to our heritage segregation was a fact of life a hundred years ago, yet our culture now shuns the thought. I believe our heritage develops our culture. The two terms are not synonymous because culture is continually evolving while heritage remains the same. TJ is right, there is a significant relationship between the two concepts – but, heritage allows us to look at what has been handed down and improve upon it…from this process culture is created. Culture requires flexibility, just like the field study.